Narutos Memory
by michelaawesome
Summary: Memories are the currency of the ninja world. To have anything; a home, services scrap of food you must willingly give away a memory of a day, a month or even a year of your life. The more precious the memory, the more value it has.
1. Chapter 1

**Prologue**

* * *

I live in a ninja world where memories are the only form of currency. Everything I need to keep my family alive. Everything I give to them, it takes a part of myself with it, my memories...

My alarm was ringing marking the beginning of a long day. I got up and went to the kitchen to turn on the cooker getting the pan ready to make my kids breakfast. I have two kids, there the best part of my life. Ever since their mother left it has been so hard on them. She left when they were so young and now they don`t really remember her. I guess it's a good thing, when I married her It was pure bliss, but soon after she gave birth to our first child she started coming home late.

She had gone out every night wasting memories that we needed to save up for our upcoming child. I guess I should have sensed that something was wrong to start with, she was starting to forget our early memories. The first time I realised that she was wasting memories was when she couldn't remember our first date. I thought it was because she was working late, but I soon found out that she had started gambling again.

We were already barely scraping by, barely making monthly utility payments. Each day she would come back later and later, and then one night she didn't come back at all. I wasnt surprised, I knew it was inevitable. I was angry at first, but she did give me the two most precious gift,s my children and for that I am great full to have met her.

I have learned how to live without her now.

I turned the bacon around in the pan to make sure it was cooked through and turned off the hob. I saw two tired faces dragging there teddy and duvet beside them to the kitchen.

"Take a seat you to, I made your favourite, bacon for breakfast!" A mumbled thank you came out of the tired mouths."Right you guys eat up while I take a shower".

As I was about to leave the room my youngest said "You can't remember dad we didn't pay our water bill this month, so we could have the gas."

"Oh yes,so your right, well I guess I could pop by the shenun on the way to work." The shenun was the equivalent of a homeless people home and charity shop rolled into one. Those who were low on memories and so couldn't afford things such as water could take a shower for free.

I kissed the kids on the heads and headed for the door. On the way down I ran into the lady who lived next door to us with her husband, she had beautiful long red hair that seemed to flow around her body as she walked.

"there just finishing up breakfast, do you mind poking your head in at about eight and tell them to get their butts to the ninja academy?"

"sure thing, have a good day!" she replied

I ran down the long stairs that stood parallel to our apartment and started walking to the shenun.

* * *

As I stood in the shower I went over what I was going to say to the governor. He was in charge of all promotions and today was the day that I was going to finally ask for one. _Today`s going to be a good day, I`m going to ask for that promotion to jounin!_ _you better believe it!_

I wandered out into the street and looked up at the hokage rock, _this is going to be a good day, I can feel it!_

I walked into the practical field to find the governor in the middle. I called out to him, and he turned around with a displeased look on his face. The governor was not the happiest looking fellow, in fact you could even say that he looked like a miserable so-on-so pretty much 24/7! He wore a long red robe with a thick rope that was so tightly arranged around his torso that you could see the outline of his undergarments.

"Hiya governor, could I...um...talk to you about ya-know...something?" I stumbled over my words, cursing myself for being so obviously weak.

"As long as its quick" the governor started to walk towards me. He soon reached me and I quickly blurted out what I wanted to say.

"Can I have that promotion you were talking about last week?"

The Governor scoffed. "Are you serious? you barely made it to chunin! I was just joking last week when I said that!"

"Well I just thought as I have been putting in extra hours recently you might want to suggest me to the hokage for a promotion?"

"That would be impossible." retorted the governor. "You see, this is the problem with your `kind`. you don't seem to understand that you will never be promoted, because frankly you are not worth the investment. People like your `kind` the poorer you are, the lower quality memories you have, so you never get out of this...trap"

I remained silent, unsure whether I was surprised or not.

"Just because you asked I'm going to reduce your pay, that makes it... " the governor paused counting on his fingers. "oh yes... you owe me a med-high quality memory"

I stepped back, "I cant afford that right now, why should I pay you? All I asked for is the promotion I deserve" i realised I had said the wrong thing when I saw the governors expression on his face.

"Dont you get snappy with me young man, I knew hiring your `kind` was a mistake! Im making oyu owe me ahigh quality memory now, just for your rudeness. Letico."

A beefy man with bright blonde hair approached the governor. "Ah yes Letico. Go and take a high quality memory from this man here." Letico opened his mouth to speak "No. Dont argue just do it. Or do you want your pay docked too today?" Letico shook his head and grabbed me by my arm draggin me away from the governor.

He dragged me around the corner and sat me down on the cold ground.

"Im sorry,I have no choice, I have a wife shes pregnant, we need as many memories as we can get!" Letico spoke very fast.

I shook my head trying to escape from his tight grasp. It was impossible to escape from this.

Letico showed placed his thumb between my eyebrows and took the memory that mattered to me most. My children.

That **was** my story.

But that was 16 years ago, when I had nothing. You may ask, how do you know this? how can you recall all these memories if they were ` taken` from you? Well there is one simple answer to that. There is someone restoring memories. Someones cracked the system and is restoring every ones memories. And his name is... Uzumaki Naruto, and he is changing the entire ninja world.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

**Authors note: Heya guys, we got off to a rough start with this one. But never fear, michelaawesome doesn't give up that easy! believe it! (as our favourite character says!) Also, an extra special thanks to ****_the gangsta of lov_****e for the constructive criticisms that helped me improve the prologue, really appreciated it! :D Comments/ constructive criticism welcome! :p-michelaawesome x**

"What did you expect, more? You have already taken all I have. What else do you want from me?!"

"I cant afford that, it's not fair, why should I give it to you?!"

"Absolutely not, I mean I couldnt possibly do that. I can't... loose _that_ memory it...it means too much to me"

Voices in the village seemed all to familiar to Naruto. It was all he heard, both day and night. Endless pleas and fights, just people trying to get by. It was every man for himself, you were responsible for your family and that's it. Everyone else was either a danger or not worth wasting your time with.

But Naruto didn't have any family now, so where did he stand?

"What does the loss of memories even mean to me?". Naruto shouted kicking a rock in frustration. He was immune anyway. He didn't know why, but as he grew up, like everyone, people tried to steal his memories. But it never worked. He could always remember what they had told him to forget. Of course he wasnt gong to tell them that. He just had to act dazed until they left him alone. He would get into a lot of trouble if he ever told anyone, he couldnt even tell his father. He had told his mother though, as he knew that she would understand that this wasnt something to be shared with the whole village. His mother understood that a secret like this would do more harm than good.

_A couple of years earlier_

Kushina shook her head rigorously in disbelief, causing her red fiery hair to move in unison. "That cant be true Naruto, you know how it works!" Kushina took a step towards in their small apartment. "You have memories taken from you, and then they are someone else`s forever. You know that Naruto."

"I know, I know. But for some reaso-"

"Then you know what your saying is a lie. Why are you lying to me Naruto, your own mother? You know that I don't tolerate liars in my house!" Kushina started to raise her fist. Her eyes began to turn to flames.

Naruto spoke quickly as he slowly lowered his mothers fist. "Mum, I'm telling the truth, I promise." Kushina paused and looked into Naruto`s deep blue eyes. Her fiery eyes began to calm down back to the normal colour. How could he be lying to her, those eyes were definitely telling the truth.

"I`m sorry Naruto, I believe you. Forgive me it's just with your dad vote for hokage coming up soon, its all been rather stressful" Kushina went to sit on the straw kitchen chair. Naruto walked over to his mother and placed a hand on her shoulder. Naruto thought about how much stress this would cause his family. He didnt do this on purpose it just happened. It he could be like everyone else he would be. It wasnt fair on anyone that he was like this, so different.

"I know mum, but you shouldnt be worried. The people will vote for dad, they want someone who is going to make a change in this village. He will make that change, you know he will. The people will finally have a leader who will abolish this cruel memory system. He can't lose! "

Kushina nodded knowing that her blonde boy couldnt be lying to her. God, she was supposed to be being the parent here! She was supposed to be the one reassuring her son. She knew he felt guilty for being this way, but she also knew how dangerous it was that he was like this. But she needed to get it together, she was the red hot Habanero for Gods sake! Although, she knew she couldnt talk to her husband about this. Minato wouldnt understand why they had to keep this quiet. He would march up to the hokages office and ruin his chances of being hokage. Just trying to defend his son, she knew that wouldnt be good for anybody. She loved him for it, but sometimes he was just so impulsive and protective of his family.

Kushina sighed "Okay Naruto, we will keep this quiet. Don`t tell your father though." Kushina could see the dissapointment in his eyes, she knew keeping secrets form his dad would kill him, especially something as big as this. Kushina stood up and held Naruto close to her chest "It is hard, I know Naruto, but it will be for the best to keep quiet"

Naruto looked down at his sandals, knowing what his mother was saying to be true. How else could they survive after all? "Of course I understand."

_Current day_

Naruto came out of his daydream as he walked up the path leading to his apartment.

He walked past several apartments, finally reaching his. Waling up the steps he reached for his keys and opened the door. He took of his sandals by the door and walked up the steps to his kitchen.

The kitchen was a mess as usual so he began to clean up all the empty ramen packets, picking up all the chopsticks scattered around the floor. He did this for about ten minutes, just trying to fill time. He had a lot of that, time but no one to spend it with. It was hard to keep relationships up with people since he found out about his memory. He couldnt ever reveal to anyone what his secret was, not without endangering theirs and his own life.

He took a step back and took a 360 degree turn around to view his whole apartment. It was empty as usual, he didnt know what he was expecting, his parents to suddenly appear in front of him welcoming him home?

He went into his room and lay down on his bed looking up at the opposite far wall. It was covered with pictures of people who he had freed from their nightmare. He had helped them to remember memories they had been forced to forget. This was all he could do, he couldnt help his parents, so now he helps other people. The pictures helped him to remember what he was doing with his life. He was helping people, he was doing what his father had wanted him to do, but was taken from this world before he had a chance to do it.

His father had a vision of what the ninja world could be, without this cruel memory system. Naruto knew what he was doing was what his father would have wanted him to do.

Of course Naruto had come across those who didnt agree with what he was doing. These people were on the side of the governors of the village, those who assisted the current corrupt hokage in the runnings of the village. These are the people who had caused the death of so many and ultimately the death of his parents.

Authors note: hope you enjoyed the chapter, next chapter out in about a weeks time! :)-michelaawesome x


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